Related papers: Pulling Apart 2-spheres in 4-manifolds

A multisection of a 4-manifold is a decomposition into 1-handlebodies intersecting pairwise along 3-dimensional handlebodies or along a central closed surface; this generalizes the Gay-Kirby trisections. We show how to compute the twisted…

We define obstructions which obstruct topological pseudo-isotopies from being isotopic to isotopies in dimension four. These match the smooth obstructions of Hatcher-Wagoner for smooth pseudo-isotopies, and accordingly are valued in certain…

The twisted torsion of a 3-manifold is well-known to be zero whenever the corresponding twisted Alexander module is non-torsion. Under mild extra assumptions we introduce a new twisted torsion invariant which is always non-zero. We show how…

We define a $\mathbb{Z}_2$-valued invariant for transversely-intersecting coassociative $4$-folds equipped with spin structures. Our main result shows this invariant provides an obstruction to separating two such coassociatives through a…

For embedded 2-spheres in a 4-manifold sharing the same embedded transverse sphere homotopy implies isotopy, provided the ambient 4-manifold has no $\BZ_2$-torsion in the fundamental group. This gives a generalization of the classical light…

A strategy for constructing an embedded sphere in a 4-manifold realizing a given homology class which has been successfully applied in the past is to represent the class as a first step stably by an embedded sphere, i.e. after adding…

We obtain new invariants of topological link concordance and homology cobordism of 3-manifolds from Hirzebruch-type intersection form defects of towers of iterated p-covers. Our invariants can extract geometric information from an arbitrary…

We apply mapping class group techniques and trisections to study intersection forms of smooth 4-manifolds. Johnson defined a well-known homomorphism from the Torelli group of a compact surface. Morita later showed that every homology…

We generalize Milnor link invariants to all types of surface-links in $4$--space (possibly with boundary). This is achieved by using the notion of cut-diagram, which is a 2-dimensional generalization of Gauss diagrams, associated to…

We use a new geometric construction, grope splitting, to give a sharp bound for separation of surfaces in 4-manifolds. We also describe applications of this technique in link-homotopy theory, and to the problem of locating pi_1-null…

Implementing an idea due to John Baez and James Dolan we define new invariants of Whitney stratified manifolds by considering the homotopy theory of smooth transversal maps. To each Whitney stratified manifold we assign transversal homotopy…

We develop a complete obstruction theory for the $\mathbb{Z}_2$-index of a compact connected 4-dimensional manifold with free involution. This $\mathbb{Z}_2$-index, equal to the minimum integer $n$ for which there exists an equivariant map…

Meier and Zupan showed that every surface in the four-sphere admits a bridge trisection and can therefore be represented by three simple tangles. This raises the possibility of applying methods from link homology to knotted surfaces. We use…

The vanishing of Van Kampen's obstruction is known to be necessary and sufficient for embeddability of a simplicial n-complex into $R^{2n}$ for $n\neq 2$, and it was recently shown to be incomplete for $n=2$. We use algebraic-topological…

We construct infinitely many smooth 4-manifolds which are homotopy equivalent to $S^2$ but do not admit a spine, i.e., a piecewise-linear embedding of $S^2$ which realizes the homotopy equivalence. This is the remaining case in the…

Given a finite CW complex $K$, we use a version of the Goodwillie-Weiss tower to formulate an obstruction theory for embedding $K$ into a Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$. For $2$-dimensional complexes in $\mathbb{R}^4$, a geometric analogue…

We show that there exists an algorithm that takes as input two closed, simply connected, topological 4-manifolds and decides whether or not these 4-manifolds are homeomorphic. In particular, we explain in detail how closed, simply…

We show that Tim Cochran's invariants $\beta^i(L)$ of a $2$-component link $L$ in the $3$--sphere can be computed as intersection invariants of certain 2-complexes in the $4$--ball with boundary $L$. These 2-complexes are special types of…

The paper introduces a group $LSP$ of obstructions for splitting a homotopy equivalence along a pair of submanifolds. We develop exact sequences relating the $LSP$-groups with various surgery obstruction groups for manifold triple and…

We compare two naturally arising notions of unknotting number for 2-spheres in the 4-sphere: namely, the minimal number of 1-handle stabilizations needed to obtain an unknotted surface, and the minimal number of Whitney moves required in a…